Little lambs are so sweet and innocent. My Daddy said once, that He wanted to talk to God about sacrificing animals, and I thought, did you miss what He said to Job because that's where that discussion would lead.
"And just where were you, Chuck, when I was doing all this creating"?
Sweet and innocent is the description of Christ, the ultimate sacrifice...
Again, it was a practice that was already taking place in many different cultures around the world. It was NOT God's idea in the first place. Again, if we look into the origin of animal sacrifice, it was the fallen angels who taught it to mankind, like they did with many other things that were never what God wanted (warfare, abortion, drugs, flesh eating, etc.)
So I think your Dad had the right idea, and I disagree that God would have responded in that same way He did with Job.
For the sake of people reading.... I'm going to copy/ paste that post from another thread we were on, regarding animal sacrifices. I'll have to do a search for it.
Here it is. I made a few changes to it, but it's mostly the same as the other thread:
Animal sacrifice was not God's idea. It was a practice that was already taken place in many parts of the world, and it has pagan origins. There is evidence that it originated in Egypt.
The Israelites, when they came out of Egypt, wanted to continue eating flesh. Remember that God gave them manna, but they complained and angered God? And I'm sure you remember the passage about how God gave them what they wanted, until it came out of their nostrils.... and then He struck them down with a severe plague and they died. The place where they died, Kibroth Hattaavah, literally means "The grave of craving."
Before I get to what you said, please read the following verses. Please don't skim over them, but really read them:
Psalm 40:6
Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Jeremiah 7:22-24
For I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
Hosea 6:6
For I desire
mercy and not sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Psalm 51:16-17
For
You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.
1 Samuel 15:22
But Samuel replied:
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
Isaiah 1:11-17
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?”
Says the Lord.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs or goats.
“When you come to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts?
Bring no more futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me.
The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Even though you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.
Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To
love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
So as you can see, God wants MERCY, not sacrifice. Now getting to what you said, there are a couple different views on animal sacrifices, from a Christian vegan perspective.
One view is that since animal sacrifices were already taking place, but were being offered to false gods, God "met us where we're at" with the intent of weaning His people off of animal sacrifice. He did that in two parts. The first part was to stop people from offering sacrifices to false gods. And to set up specific rules about what was already taking place. (Similar to what was done with slavery...which is also not what God wanted in the first place.)
And the second part was to end animal sacrifice altogether, through the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus who offered Himself, as the spotless Lamb of God.
Jesus sacrifice was supposed to put an end to all animal sacrifice. But of course mankind is selfish and continues to do what they want to do.
Another view, which is much more controversial, is that as it states in Jeremiah the "lying scribes" changed and added to God's word, because they simply wanted to continue sacrificing animals. Not only because they wanted to eat flesh, but because the animal sacrifice system was hugely profitable.
